MORE unionised companies are expected to make special one-off payments to workers in the coming weeks to help them cope with the impact of inflation, labour chief Lim Swee Say said yesterday.

He did not name the companies, but said they would target workers earning $2,500 or less a month.

Such employees can expect one-off payments ranging from $200 to $500.

He was speaking to reporters after touring the newly opened Crowne Plaza Changi Airport hotel yesterday.

Mr Lim, the secretary-general of the National Trades Union Congress, was encouraged by the fact that about 20 unionised companies had said 'yes' since the National Wages Council's (NWC's) recommendation of one-off payments.

Several more businesses from sectors such as finance, banking and transport will do so in the next two weeks, he added.

The Government - Singapore's largest employer - said on Wednesday that its 60,000 civil servants would receive a one-off payment of $100 to $300 along with their mid-year bonus of a half-month's salary in July.

Officers in the lower divisions will get a larger amount.

The Public Service Division explained yesterday that the mid-year payment was a package comprising the half-month salary and the payments of $100 to $300.

'The package takes into consideration factors including Singapore's economic outlook and the NWC's call to give a one-off special payment to help rank-and-file workers, particularly low-wage workers, better cope with the impact of inflation this year,' it said.

Mr Lim said that the labour movement did not expect all bosses to follow suit, as some had tight budgets or faced difficult business conditions.

'We are not insisting that all companies big and small must make this one-off payment. Our point is that employers, especially those who can afford it, should, as far as possible, find ways to implement this one-off payment,' he said.

Neither would the labour movement prescribe an amount, he said, as this depended on what a company could afford and how much the firm empathised with low-wage workers.

But he reminded listeners that many low-wage workers 'are having a tough time as they go through this period of high inflation'.

'The Government is doing its best. The labour movement (is) doing our very best. The least that employers can do is to show their sincerity and do whatever they can.'

Singapore Bank Employees' Union general secretary Bobby Tay disclosed that a group of local and foreign banks intended to make one-off payments to staff.

But negotiations with the group on the amount to be paid out or the category of workers who will benefit had yet to begin.

Still, he hoped that the payout would be 'meaningful', like the $300 that civil servants in Division IV will get, and not a token $50 to $60.

After all, the banking industry had been one of the most profitable last year and could afford to be more generous, he said.

One company that has given staff a one-off payment is the Singapore branch of Essilor, a French multinational dealing in spectacle lenses.

General manager Sim Peng Tak, 40, said that even before the NWC's call, all 63 staff had received an inflationary subsidy at the end of last month. This was worth half a percentage point of their annual salary.

This worked out to $150 for someone earning $30,000 a year and cost the company up to $18,000 in all.

'We had read the newspapers talking about inflation since the end of last year. As an employer, we must be responsible and make sure our workers are well taken care of,' Mr Sim said of the one-off payment.

chinlian@sph.com.sg